Day+Two+December+4,+2009

Another incredible day in China! These are the most gracious and generous people you're ever going to meet! Today started off very early with a welcoming ceremony in the grand ball room of the Beijing Hotel. High ranking officials from Hanban as well as Peter Negroni, Senior VIce-President of The College Board, welcomed the Delegation. This was a long general session in which the importance of cooperation between the U.S and China was currently and how much more important it would be ing the future. The point was very clear that the work that we educators are doing now to bridge the language differences between our countries will have a tremendous impact on the effictiveness of cooperation between China and the U.S.



After a lunch break we met briefly again in the afternoon to discuss the details of our trip to the city of Xiamen (Shaa-men) in Fujian (Foo-jen) Province. Representatives from the City of Xiamen Education Bureau accompanied met with us in the morning and we learned that they would be accompanying us every step of the way for the rest of our trip. I really feel like this is going to be a great opportunity to build some relationships with these great folks that will facilitate mutually benificial partnerships between PISD and our Chinese counterparts.

Mid-afternoon we wrapped up our meetings and we loaded up on the tour bus. We were going to visit two other culturally significant places in Beijing.

We began our tour at the Confucious Temple. Confucious is revered by the Chinese as a great teacher and philosopher, For centuries, the emperors of China came to the Confucious Temple to pray to Confucious for guidance and wisdom. The courtyard at the temple is also filled with huge stone tablets exhalting the accomplishments of various emperors.



Notice Flat Stanley in the bottom right of the frame. He was with another group not associated with us. You gotta love Flat Stanley!





The above picture is of a structure erected to house the stone tablets that were mentioned earlier.

We also visited the Temple of the Lamas. This temple was originally built to house the last emperor of China in his boyhood before he became emperor. It was then turned into the Temple that it is today. There is a Lamery (think monastery for high ranking monks) attached. This temple was crowded with devout Buddhists, saying their evening prayers. Many Buddhists go to the temple daily or several times each week. The 2 degrees Centigrade with the 20 MPH Manchurian wind didn't deter them.

I know what you're thinking... Justin found pit barbecue in China... This is actuatlly an incense burner loaded up with frangrant offerings to God.



If it looks cold in this picture, remeber that Beijing is at the same latitude as Minneapolis, Brrrr!!